Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Here's a great areal shot of the Hanna-Barbera section of Canada's Wonderland (sister park of King's Dominion)...

From Wikipedia:
Hanna-Barbera Land opened in 1981 with three sections. The first section was Yogi's Woods, based on The Yogi Bear Show, which featured the attractions Balloon Race, Yogi's Cave, Boo Boos Buggys, and the Woodland Theatre (now the Playhouse Theatre). Scoobyville was the central town site, where a carousel and other attractions were included. On the opposite end of Scoobyville from Yogi's Wood was Bedrock, based on The Flintstones. Saltwater Circus was also in the section.
In 1984, Smurf Village replaced Yogi's Woods; the section featured the newly popular Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Smurfs. A walk-through attraction, Smurf Village closed at the end of the 1992 season.
For the 1993 season, the Smurf Village section of the park became Kids Kingdom. In 1998, KidZVille replaced the Kids Kingdom and its two rides, the "Kid's Castle Playland" and the "Jumbo Bumps" were renamed to "The Candy Factory" and the "Twizzler Twist" (and renamed again the next year to "Sour Cherry Blaster Twist"). Along with five new rides for KidZVille, "The Busy Little Town" was launched, and it included the characters from Nickelodeon's Rugrats series.[3] The Playhouse Theatre still had a Hanna-Barbera themed show, Scooby Doo's Scary School Daze.[3] On slower days, the Scooby-Doo walkaround character may venture through this section of the park.
The Bedrock section of the park met its end soon after, being replaced by Nickelodeon Central in 2003. Only the bumper cars were kept, turned into the Rugrats Toonpike. The restaurant was de-themed, and turned into a Pizza Pizza.
In 2010 Hanna-Barbera Land was replaced with Planet Snoopy.

I had the fortune to visit the park in it's heyday back in 1986. I mostly remember the Smurf Village walk through attraction, which replaced Yogi's Cave and a live Smurf show that we saw.

Friday, April 20, 2012

There's plenty of activity inside Brooke's Castle before the park opens next weekend. On a recent visit to the Season Pass Office, we snapped a few pictures of some of the progress just beyond the castle drawbridge...

There will be a whole new view when guests enter the castle this year. On the right hand side of the picture, covered by the tarp, is the gift shop. Just beyond the retail area is a new room. On the other side, what once housed more retail space is now taking shape to become Merlin's - Dutch Wonderland's first full service restaurant.

You can see at the far end of the hallway, a new yellow room is making it's debut where just a wall stood before...

...Not sure exactly what this room will be yet. It looks like cubby holes, which is a doubtful addition. Perhaps these are display units for merchandise?

On the other side of the hallway, construction is still moving forward on Merlin's. The restaurant is scheduled to open at the beginning of the Summer and it looks like they've still got quite a way to go. The new restaurant will give guests the opportunity to dine inside the castle in what promises to be a themed dining experience.
It certainly looks like there will be plenty of new surprises just inside the castle alone when the park opens for the 2012 season. It make you wonder what other surprises Duke has planned inside the park...